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Half of Credit Unions Grapple With Little or No Growth: Print Preview


Many credit unions had a banner 2012 in member growth. But many didn't. This print preview from CU Times, next week's edition, explores that issue.

What are some of the reasons why the smaller credit unions are not growing their memberships? Glatt said one culprit could be visibility.
“You may have a branch that is locked down because it’s not in the community. Some of the smaller credit unions are beholden to a single sponsor,” Glatt said. “They likely didn’t have an interest in Bank Transfer Day and [former bank customers] are probably not the people that they’re attracting anyway.”
Then there are a fair number of credit unions that could care less about increasing their member bases, Glatt said. Instead, they choose to look at other ways to define their success such as through loan and decent deposit relationships. However, for the long term, that measurement could lead to failure.
 

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